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Paul D. Miller

Paul D. Miller is associate director of the Clements Center for National Security at University of Texas at Austin. He is a distinguished scholar with the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, an affiliated faculty member with the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and a lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

As a practitioner, Miller served as director for Afghanistan and Pakistan on the National Security Council staff; worked as an intelligence analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency; and served as a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, including a deployment to Afghanistan.

In his first book, Armed State Building (Cornell University Press, 2013), Miller examined the history and strategy of stability operations. Miller taught at the National Defense University and worked at the RAND Corporation prior to arriving at UT-Austin.

Miller blogs on foreign affairs at Elephants in the Room. His writing has also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Survival, Presidential Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Strategic Studies, Orbis, The American Interest, The National Interest, The World Affairs Journal, Small Wars and Insurgencies, and elsewhere. Miller holds a Ph.D. in international relations and B.A. in government from Georgetown University, and a master in public policy from Harvard University.

He is a contributing editor of the Texas National Security Review, a contributing editor of Providence: A Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy, a research fellow at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, a member of the advisory board for the Philos Project, and a member of the Texas Lyceum.

Abstract

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan convinced many policymakers and scholars that the United States should pull back in international affairs and that restraint should guide grand strategy. Paul D. Miller offers a tough-minded critique of this trending body of thought, arguing that U.S. security in fact depends on active, sustained support of the international liberal order. Miller blends academic rigor with his experiences as former director for Afghanistan and Pakistan on the National Security Council to offer conservative internationalist prescriptions for U.S. grand strategy.

Dismissing claims of overextended U.S. resources and perceived safety, Miller argues that nuclear autocracies, armed non-state actors, failed states, and the transnational jihadist movement still pose immense threats to American security and the international system. His analysis offers policy options for balancing against the nuclear autocracies, championing liberalism to maintain the balance of power in its favor, targeting militant non-state actors, investing in governance in weak and failed states, and strengthening homeland security. As Miller shows, these necessary steps will fortify the international liberal order that forms the outer perimeter of American security ― and aid U.S. efforts to craft a more just peace among nations.